Japan’s SBI Unveils New Plans to Start an Exchange for Major Cryptocurrencies

Japan’s SBI Holdings has reportedly unveiled new plans for its cryptocurrency exchange. The company has set a target launch date and is preparing to list major cryptocurrencies. The group’s CEO expects the new exchange to “be number one in the blink of an eye.”

Revised Launch Date

SBI Holdings has updated its plans to fully launch a cryptocurrency exchange. The company had planned for SBI Virtual Currencies to launch “in the autumn of 2017 and at the latest the beginning of 2018,” Minkabu publication recalled.

However, the plan was postponed following Coincheck’s hack and the trouble with its capital and business alliance agreement with China’s Huobi Group. These circumstances led the company to refrain from fully launching the exchange even though it had already received a license from the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) in September of last year.

Yoshitaka Kitao.

President and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said at a press conference this week that the company is planning to officially start the crypto exchange business in the summer, the news outlet conveyed, adding that the exchange “is not a white label of other exchanges but a self-developed” one. SBI Virtual Currencies has, however, been offering a limited service to a few customers since January 30, according to Business Insider Japan.

As for which cryptocurrencies will be supported when the full launch comes, Kitao said that “it is assumed to be major virtual currencies, [including] bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ethereum (ETH), [and] ripple (XRP),” the news outlet detailed.

Expecting to Rise to the Top

The company has been carefully considering the timing of its exchange’s full launch based on the hack of Coincheck and the subsequent change in the business environment. The publication quoted Kitao exclaiming:

When we do it, it will be number one in the blink of an eye so quickly, so even if a tremendous number of customers come, we can build a system that can bear [the workload].

One factor that will differentiate SBI’s exchange from others is that “We set the spread to the industry minimum,” he described. The CEO is confident that this will propel his exchange to be the industry leader. “Given that the SBIFX trading spread of the group’s FX company is at the industry’s narrowest level, this is to be expected,” Minkabu commented.

SBI already owns one of the largest security brokerages in Japan. “There are a total of 8.5 million accounts of financial affiliates such as SBI Securities Co. Ltd.,” the publication pointed out.

Kitao also emphasized the importance of building trust in the crypto community. To that effect, he recently assumed office as a director of the new self-regulating organization, the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association, which was recently established by 16 fully-licensed exchanges.

Do you think SBI’s crypto exchange will quickly become the number one exchange in Japan? Let us know in the comments section below.